Currently reading

Murakami's latest.  And loving it (as per usual).

This weekend:

--RT's art show

--Snow day

Home

Finally home after 14 days, three cities, two continents.  Fun trip but it feels delightful to lay on my couch and hang out with my animals.

Leaving on a jet plane

I'm bound for Amsterdam and Berlin this week.  Can't wait.

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images, from Life

Exploration

I just finished reading this (so good!) and am now obsessed with learning more about arctic and antartic explorations.  I am fascinated by Shackleton's Expedition voyage--not a single crewmember died and they camped out on an ice floe hoping it would drift.  Sheesh.

This weekend:

• RT's birthday
• Zombies
• Art

Archive of Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research

Courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society; photograph, Underwood and Underwood, New York

Courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society; photograph, Underwood and Underwood, New York

Courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society; photograph, Underwood and Underwood, New York

Courtesy of the Royal Geographical Society; photograph, Underwood and Underwood, New York

"Runway modeling the Soviet way"

I love looking at the galleries they put together on Life.  This one is great--commie vs. capitalist fashion.  Yup.

Photo by Walter Sanders//Time Life Pictures/Getty Images

A list

Of books I've read this summer.  In part, this is a place marker for future reading endeavors.

--Iris Murdoch, Jackson's Dilemma: I really wanted to like this one, but it felt like a bit of a slog.  Too much preoccupation with trivialities.

--Aimee Bender, An Invisible Sign of My Own.  Nice, light reading for summer.  I liked the style but no ideas shook me to my core.

--Edward Abbey, Beyond the Wall. Inspiring.  Made me want to live with greater purpose and freedom.

--John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley and East of Eden. The first is a re-read; always love it and this time it was particularly impactful.  Also loved East of Eden--lengthy story that made me care about the characters, wish I could be like them, and think about new things.

--Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey.  Also a re-read--much lighter and more silly of a book this time around.

--Shelley Jackson, Half Life.  Completely enjoyable, enviable writing style.

--John Connolly, The Book of Lost Things.  Kinda boring, really fluffy, but good for laying by the pool.

--Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin.  Re-read (pattern here--less re-reads and more new things for future).  Always good.

From Life

New planets

Pretty trippy.

Yves St Laurent

From Life.  So good.

End of summer

Hike up to an alpine lake.  Magical.